Free Republic

Daily Readings from the USCCBEarly in the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots. Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” Mark 11:20–21The prophets often used the image of a barren fig tree to symbolize Israel’s fruitless spirituality (cf. Hosea 9:10; Jeremiah 8:13). Though they were God’s chosen people, with whom God established His Covenant, time and moral decay led to a fruitless spirituality. Despite their outward observance of the Law, their hearts were far from God. In today’s Gospel, Jesus was hungry...

Assembly Democrats have passed AB 2108, undermining Prop 36 which overwhelmingly passed in every one of California’s 58 counties Just months after voters approved Proposition 36 to restore felony penalties for repeat theft and drug crimes, Democrats in the Assembly passed AB 2108, a bill authored by Assemblymember LaShae Sharp-Collins (D-La Mesa) that creates a pretrial diversion program for retail theft, shoplifting, forgery, and vandalism. Prop 36 passed with strong support in every one of California’s 58 counties in November 2024. The ballot measure restored felony penalties for repeat offenders after a decade of disaster and rising crime under Prop...

TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) — A 79-year-old woman has been arrested and charged in connection with a 1975 cold case. According to the Pima County Sheriff's Department, Carol Ann Beall, 79, was arrested on May 28. PCSD Homicide and Cold Case Unit detectives located the woman in the 7800 block of N. Starr Grass Drive. She faces a first-degree murder charge in the 1975 death of 73-year-old William Reginald Sipfle. Play Video Carol Ann Beall, 79, has been arrested and charged in connection with a 1975 cold case. The victim was identified as 73-year-old William Reginald Sipfle. In October 1975, a...

A federal judge ruled, opens new tab on Thursday that the terminations ​of hundreds of humanities grants last year by the Department of ‌Government Efficiency were unconstitutional, and involved "blatant" discrimination. In April last year, the administration terminated more than 1,400 grants, representing over $100 million in congressionally appropriated funds awarded to scholars, writers, research institutions and other humanities organizations. The terminations were part ​of a cost-cutting drive The judge said the terminations violated the ​U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which provides free speech rights, and its Fifth Amendment's equal protection component. The ​ruling also said DOGE did not have the...

A Democratic National Committee staff member is believed to be behind a profane X post targeting White House adviser Stephen Miller that was published from the DNC’s official account. Paulina Mangubat, 30, a DNC senior digital strategist who previously worked as digital content and creative director for the Democrats, serves on the team responsible for managing the party’s @TheDemocrats X account, which has 2.4 million followers. Her LinkedIn profile says she graduated from Barnard College in 2017 and previously worked as digital and creative director for woke Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

GLASGOW, Ky. (TNND) — A Kentucky man was charged with attempted fetal homicide after investigators said he allegedly replaced his pregnant girlfriend’s prescription medication with an unknown substance, according to authorities. Kentucky State Police identified the suspect as 26-year-old Abdulah Mohmand, of Bowling Green. State police said troopers were contacted on Monday around 7:30 a.m. by a woman from Glasgow who reported concerns about the safety of her unborn child after learning her prescription medication had allegedly been switched. The woman told investigators she believed her boyfriend, Mohmand, replaced the medication with another drug. Following an investigation, state police said...

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is leading in new polling on a hypothetical Democratic presidential primary as the party seeks a new path after 2024 losses. An Emerson College Polling survey released Thursday found Buttigieg at the top of the pack with 18 percent support, followed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) at 16 percent. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) notched 11 percent support, while Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and former Vice President Kamala Harris — the party’s 2024 nominee — earned 10 percent each. Another 9 percent of survey respondents backed Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D), and 18 percent...

○ 1 THE VIRUS WAS ENGINEERED IN A LABORATORY IN CHINA. Because the pathogen first emerged in Wuhan, China, President Donald Trump and others have claimed, without evidence, that it started in a lab there, and some conspiracy theorists believe it was engineered as a bioweapon. Why It’s False: U.S. intelligence agencies have categorically denied the possibility that the virus was engineered in a lab, stating that “the Intelligence Community ... concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified.” Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli—who studies bat coronaviruses and whose lab Trump and others...

I was born into a sternly Presbyterian culture. Politically, I’m more Orange than Donald Trump’s skin tone. But today I am on my knees giving thanks to the Pope. He has produced the most powerful political document of the year, taking on the greatest challenge of our times. His first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, deals with the changes which will be wrought to all our lives by artificial intelligence in the months and years ahead. AI will transform our economies and societies massively and irrevocably; it will change what it means to be human; it may even mark the end of...

Latin America is undergoing a political transformation. Seven countries in the region have recently or will soon hold elections: Bolivia, Honduras, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Colombia and Brazil, in chronological order. In the four elections that have already taken place, the right wing triumphed; while in the remaining three, according to polls, conservative presidential candidates are highly likely to win.. This shift is namely due to three factors: the governance failures of the left-wing parties, new evidence of the close relationship between the left and organized crime, and the significant influence of the United States’ new National Security Strategy... The...

A drone struck a residential building in Romania’s city of Galati near the Ukrainian border, injuring two people and triggering a fire after impact, authorities said on Friday. The incident, which prompted the evacuation of dozens of residents, comes amid continued drone activity in the region linked to the war in Ukraine.

State employees are fighting back against Gov. Gavin Newsom ordering them off the couch and back into the office, arguing that by doing so thousands of additional cars will be on the road, hurting the state’s efforts to be carbon neutral. In a blistering exhaustion letter, the California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment (CASE) argued that any agency adopting Newsom’s Return-to-Office executive order (RTO) without first studying its environmental fallout is violating the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. The union blasted the mandate as a “discretionary project” under CEQA, which requires state and local...

A New York pastor is raising eyebrows after using provocative and crude language to blast New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani and the Democrats in a recent sermon. James David Manning, 79, is the longtime pastor of ATLAH World Missionary Church, formerly known as Bethelite Missionary Baptist Church. ATLAH stands for All The Land Anointed Holy, a moniker Manning has given to his home base of Harlem. No stranger to controversy, he is known for his vivid objections to homosexuality- having previously called for them to be stoned to death while claiming that sodomites like to hang out at Starbucks because...

Syria’s transitional government said on Tuesday it has recovered “remnants” of the secret chemical weapons program created by deposed dictator Bashar Assad and have arrested 18 suspects who were allegedly involved in the program. Assad was overthrown in December 2024 and sought refuge in Russia, one of the nations that propped up his rule during the long and brutal Syrian civil war. He was replaced by a “transitional government” run by an alliance of insurgents and jihadis and presided over by a former member of al-Qaeda named Ahmed al-Sharaa. The new Syrian government turned against Assad’s old patrons of Russia...

A new Los Angeles mayoral poll claiming there’s a dead heat between Mayor Karen Bass, Spencer Pratt and Nithya Raman is getting torched by longtime political insiders. The UC Berkeley and Los Angeles Times poll released Thursday showed Bass leading with 26% support among likely voters, with Raman close behind at 25% and Pratt surging to 22%. But several veteran Los Angeles political strategists told The California Post the poll misses large portions of the electorate and dramatically understates Pratt’s growing support. Among them is veteran strategist Rick Taylor, who has spent roughly 50 years inside Los Angeles politics and...

America’s biggest abortion business is closing down yet another center, saying it doesn’t get enough customers. Planned Parenthood’s Gainesville, Florida center will shut down next month due to declining patient volume, the abortion giant announced this week. The organization said the center will permanently close on June 26. The Gainesville Planned Parenthood Health Center doesn’t do abortions on site but sells the abortion pill and makes surgical abortion referrals. It also mutilates patients with trans drugs. The abortion group announced the closure on social media Wednesday. “While this was an incredibly difficult decision, it does not change our commitment to...

Nearly half of the physicians believe that patients have less trust in their treatment recommendations today than they did several years ago ...

JUST NOW: Jeff Bezos’ New Glenn rocket has EXPLODED into a MASSIVE fireball on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral in Florida It literally looks like a NUCLEAR BOMB went off. @ElonMusk responded: “Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard.” Insane to watch.

In A Nutshell A single octopus collected nearly a mile deep near the Galápagos Islands has been identified as a new species, Microeledone galapagensis, overturning a recent definition that placed its entire family exclusively in the cold Southern Ocean. Small enough to fit in the palm of a hand and vivid blue on top with a deep purple-to-maroon underside, the animal displays an unusual reversed color pattern that extends inside its body, a feature researchers think may help hide the glow of bioluminescent prey. Because the DNA samples were lost and no second specimen has been collected, the entire species...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is drawing renewed attention online after appearing at an Eid al-Adha celebration in New York City wearing a hijab alongside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Video from the Wednesday event in the Bronx — portions of which fall within Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional district — showed the congresswoman speaking onstage while wearing the Islamic head covering as Mamdani stood behind her in a kurta styled after an Arsenal soccer jersey. The appearance quickly circulated online given Ocasio-Cortez’s status as one of the Democratic Party’s most outspoken leftist figures and self-described feminists in Congress. Eid al-Adha is one...